How frequently does your Mac go on the fritz?

Today, I right clicked on a file on my desktop. It didn't respond at first, so I right-clicked again and then the beach ball appeared and it stayed that way. I think it was Finder stalling out. I tried switching and launching other programs, tried logging out, and finally tried CMD-option-Esc. All of them didn't work. Finally I was forced to hold down the power button to force shut down the system. Booted it back up and everything was back to normal again.
This is the first time this has ever happened since I recieved my Mini around early April. So I'm just doing a reality check with this post. This is my first Mac.
How frequently does your Mac act up to the point where you are forced to force shut down or pull the plug (the absolute last resort)?

Even then, Peter's advice may be a little bit over the top. There a loads of Macs out there that rarely get their permissions fixed, probably don't have cron tasks run at all, that don't have copies of any of the general purpose utilities such as OnyX or Cocktail, and where the users don't have crashes or kernel panics either.
The real skill in maintaining OS X is to resist doing things that you don't need to do, because it largely looks after itself. From time to time, you might notice a problem, the symptoms of which will generally help determine what needs to be done in order to rectify it.
But if a user is determined to do anything routinely, it should not be to alter the general use of the system (ie, not to suddenly decide to leave it on 24/7 not sleeping so the cron tasks can run), but to use MacJanitor maybe once a month to do the daily, weekly and monthly tasks all in one go, and to fix permissions after an install that has asked for an admin password. The user might also be wise to keep a copy of OnyX, Cocktail or YASU (YASU being the best for the novice user because it is very difficult to misuse) and to use it from time to time as and when the system exhibits poor overall performance or when it has trouble opening or running applications.
Which is not to really contradict Peter's advice, but to say that much that is said on the subject of maintaining Macs and MacOS in good working order is overstated. A low-key/light demand attitude to this aspect of caring for systems is typically rather better - not least because it's typically not a cron task or a permission fault that causes a problem - more commonly hacks, hardware/peripherals or software.

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